1977 Magherafelt District Council election explained

See main article: Northern Ireland local elections, 1977.

Election Name:	1977 Magherafelt District Council election
Type:	parliamentary
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1973 Magherafelt District Council election
Previous Year:	1973
Next Election:	1981 Magherafelt District Council election
Next Year:	1981
Seats For Election:	All 15 seats to Magherafelt District Council
Majority Seats:	8
Party1:	Social Democratic and Labour Party
Seats1:	5
Seat Change1:	1
Party2:	Ulster Unionist Party
Seats2:	4
Seat Change2:	1
Party3:	Democratic Unionist Party
Seats3:	3
Seat Change3:	3
Party4:	Republican Clubs
Seats4:	1
Seat Change4:	0
Party5:	United Ulster Unionist Party
Seats5:	1
Seat Change5:	1
Party6:	Independent Nationalist
Seats6:	1
Seat Change6:	0
Party7:	Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party
Seats7:	0
Seat Change7:	1
Party8:	United Loyalist
Seats8:	0
Seat Change8:	1

Elections to Magherafelt District Council were held on 18 May 1977 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used three district electoral areas to elect a total of 15 councillors.

Election results

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.

Districts summary

|- class="unsortable" align="centre"!rowspan=2 align="left"|Ward! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
!rowspan=2|Total
Cllrs
|- class="unsortable" align="center"!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | RC!colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUUP!colspan=2 bgcolor="white"|

Others|-|align="left"|Area A|bgcolor="#99FF66"|47.8|bgcolor="#99FF66"|2|26.2|2|10.0|0|17.0|1|0.0|0|0.0|0|5|-|align="left"|Area B|21.5|1|bgcolor="40BFF5"|24.5|bgcolor="40BFF5"|2|14.8|1|9.1|0|10.1|1|20.0|1|5|-|align="left"|Area C|bgcolor="#99FF66"|36.5|bgcolor="#99FF66"|2|10.2|1|31.4|2|0.0|0|8.4|0|13.5|0|5|-|- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9"|align="left"| Total|35.1|5|20.1|4|18.7|3|8.5|1|6.3|1|11.3|1|15|-|}

Districts results

Area A

1973: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Republican Clubs
1977: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x Republican Clubs
1973-1977 Change: UUP gain from SDLP

Area B

1973: 2 x UUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Vanguard, 1 x Independent Nationalist
1977: 1 x UUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x UUUP, 1 x Independent Nationalist
1973-1977 Change: DUP and UUUP gain from UUP and Vanguard

Area C

1973: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x United Loyalist
1977: 2 x SDLP, 2 x DUP, 1 x UUP
1973-1977 Change: DUP gain from UUP, United Loyalist joins DUP